This year’s Springfield High School (Casey’s alma mater) scholarship was awarded to Nicole DiMauro, Editor-in-Chief of Springfield High School’s Spri-Hian school newspaper. However, it was not just this similarity with Casey that earned Nicole the scholarship—her love of journalism combined with a passion for theater, sheer kindness and overall positivity made Nicole stand out as the perfect nominee for the scholarship.

Nicole shines both inside and outside of the classroom, maintaining stellar grades while volunteering around the community, playing volleyball for the school, participating in theater and working tirelessly to make Springfield’s journalism program the best that it can be. Hilary Campbell, Nicole’s school counselor, thinks this is because “Nicole is a self-motivated learner.” Campbell continued that “Although Nicole is somewhat reserved, she possesses powerful maturity, drive and confidence. Few of her family members finished high school, but Nicole is eager to attend college and is well prepared.”

Although Nicole seems like an ideal candidate for the scholarship, she was surprised to find out that she was the student chosen to receive the award. While talking about the moment she found out she won the scholarship, Nicole recalled “I heard about it when the principal sent out an email to the school detailing the senior awards ceremony.” When pressed for more details as to why she thinks she was chosen, Nicole stayed coy and humble, simply replying “I think my teachers noticed that I was a hard worker and had good leadership and organizational skills.”

Come this fall, Nicole will start the next phase of her life as a communications student at Penn State. “I loved writing for the school paper, the Spri-Hian, the most,” Nicole said. Starting as a writer her sophomore year, Nicole worked her way up to a page editor (junior year) before being elected the Editor-in-Chief senior year. “Because of my experience with the newspaper, I plan to study communications at Penn State. Being in a newsroom setting just does something to me… I love doing interviews, meeting new people and even spending long nights editing articles. There’s nothing like it.” She continued, “The paper really changed my outlook on everything. I had never been so passionate about something before.”

*Morgan Steward is a junior Communication and Media Studies student at Fordham University at Lincoln Center (Casey’s alma mater). Born in Beaumont, TX, she to moved to New York City to pursue a career in the media. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Observer, Fordham’s student newspaper (where Casey was the News Editor).